


You Were Always Mine

by raendown



Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [79]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-30 23:01:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21436123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: She had him picked out years ago, she just didn't tell him that until now.
Relationships: Nara Shikaku/Nara Yoshino
Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [79]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533161
Comments: 15
Kudos: 74





	You Were Always Mine

She had been called many things in her life but there were some qualities that Yoshino had never bothered to deny about herself and one of those was that she was stubborn. Oh so very stubborn. As a child her mother had called her Little Goat in that exasperated but loving motherly way. Now she was freshly past her seventeenth birthday, of an age to marry, and she was determined that today would be the day she finally caught the man she’d picked out several years before. Finding another was not an option.

Dust kicked up under her footsteps and Yoshino primly brushed it off the front of her dress as she came to a stop on a doorstep just a few houses down the street from her own. Three sharp raps announced her presence and then there was nothing to do but to wait.

Not for very long, though.

Shikaku opened the door and froze when he caught sight of who had come round. She could practically see the gears turning in his mind as he tried to quickly think of an excuse to send her away again but Yoshino had come prepared.

“If you want me to go,” she said, “honestly truly want me to, then I will.” And she almost meant that.

“Ah…” He didn’t seem to know how to respond to that but it was all well and good. The silence gave her a chance to speak her piece before he could flee.

“Nara Shikaku, if you will have me I would be honored to be considered as a potential suitor. I find you honorable, attractive, and just smart enough to know when to stop being stubborn. We would make an excellent couple. And more than that we would make excellent children; I know the elders have been bothering you about that.”

He blanched and Yoshino nodded, knowing she’d hit the mark.

“Right then. I want you to meet me for dinner in two hours at the BBQ place three blocks from the compound gates. Will you come?”

“You don’t really leave a lot of options, do you?” Shikaku murmured.

“There is always an option to say no,” she told him in a much softer voice. “I would never want you to feel forced.”

“Eh, to say no would be troublesome. The elders have been bothering me just like you said and if you’re going to save me the work of finding a suitable wife then I suppose I’m not going to reject it.”

Anyone else might have found such a lukewarm sentiment insulting but Yoshino knew this young man almost better than she knew herself, had wormed her way in to his life as a young child demanding friendship from all her neighbors and fallen in love somewhere along the way. She could read the hidden pleasure in the way his eyes didn’t quite meet hers and just a hint of shyness in the overly casual way he slipped both hands in to his pockets.

He’d always been sweet in his own way and she wouldn’t change him for the world. She loved him just as he was, always had, and always would.

“You will be _on time_, do you hear me?”

“Keep your calm, woman, I’ll be there.” Shikaku gave her one slow nod that she returned with a great deal of satisfaction, turning on her heel to march away with as much confidence as she had approached the house.

Only this time there were jitters in her stomach and a massive grin that she barely held back until she was able to hide her face from him. Stubborn as she might be, there had always been that niggling doubt in the back of her mind that he might say no. It was wonderful to be right. Almost as wonderful as it would be to have Shikaku’s hand to hold for the rest of her life. 


End file.
